1 minute ago, the special one said:

For me this is why Alonso was so bad, at least Azpi's crosses had method and tested Southampton's defence. Alonso is just too slow, physically and mentally.

Our full backs are a problem in attacking areas, I'd also like to see CHO given a run once fit as he has the unpredictable flair to create out of nothing. He won't be perfect but just getting the odd dangerous cross would take away the advantage defenders seem to have against our attack. 

Ross Barkley shouldn't be starting games either, far too safe in possession with little or no attacking threat.

2 minutes ago, the special one said:

For me this is why Alonso was so bad, at least Azpi's crosses had method and tested Southampton's defence. Alonso is just too slow, physically and mentally.

I thought Azpi’s crosses where really poor tonight. Considering the way he crossed for Morata at the start. He had at least 4 attempts of crosses in the second half all of which were blocked or easily cut out.

1 hour ago, TomCFC85 said:

We need to get the ball in their net so we can be winning 

Can you please join the coaching staff and train them in this method. 

What happened to our corner kicks? We used to be quite an intimidating team in the box during those. How many goals have we scored under Sarri from corners, I struggle to remember any.

I also think our fullbacks need to do a whole lot better. Teams play low block against us which makes it difficult to penetrate through the middle. There's a need to strech out those defences and put in good crosses. Both Azpi and Alonso are struggling with that.

As for sarriball, I do realize you need time to get the team playing a new style, but what about instances when plan A isn't working which we've witnessed on many occasions already this season? It just seems no matter what we're approaching the game the same way and the opponents clearly figured it out. What's the point of having 80% of possession when we create 2-3 real goalscoring chances throughout the match and our first shot on goal at home against the team near the bottom of the table comes around 34th minute? 

Keep seeing people saying pep took time,ther is a huge difference, peps team were playing his football instantly scoring for fun, but they kept conceding, so he spent over 200million defenders, we arent playing any good football at all, if we buy a player, wil he also need a season to learn sarriball

Just now, Munkworth said:

Can you please join the coaching staff and train them in this method. 

i used to sit in front of a guy who kept shouting "kick it in the net" - every game.....where is he now???

2 minutes ago, enigma said:

It takes time to adopt a new system. The only similar system is Pep's and his first season was rocky in patches too, just like ours. The city fans were also showing discontent with Pep during the season, but when it comes together it's great. The problem is, we are playing with 10 men because our striker/s are abysmal. Any coach would have issues with what we have up top. Man Utd have Martial and even Rashford who make good movement off the ball, City have Aguero/Jesus, Spurs have Kane, Liverpool have Firmino. We simply don't have good enough movement up top to cause a threat to opposition backlines. 

Pep is a far better manager and motivator.......he got what wanted by his board. These 2 help alot. And us not having forwards does not explain the endlessly boring and slow footy. Theres zero pace when we attack, no hunger......every single time we are more than willing to allow the opponent to get back and the attack dies out. How many times must Sarii witness it before doing anything about it.

1 minute ago, carrickblue said:

i used to sit in front of a guy who kept shouting "kick it in the net" - every game.....where is he now???

Man Utd just sacked him!!

6 minutes ago, goose said:

I thought Azpi’s crosses where really poor tonight. Considering the way he crossed for Morata at the start. He had at least 4 attempts of crosses in the second half all of which were blocked or easily cut out.

You're right, but even so that's still a hell of a lot more than what Alonso did tonight.

Edited January 2, 20197 yr by the special one

12 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

What i find most frustrating is that this isn't Sarriball, not from what i have seen. His previous team played lots of short passes, true, but there was a buzz, a lot of movement off the ball, fast, one touch football and direct fast running at the opposition. Not here. I don't see any difference between this and the previous manager's performances. Our football wasn't bad under Conte, it was just boring and aimless, until we ultimately fcked up and conceded. The only difference here is that we have Rudi and Luiz at the back so there are less fck ups and we just draw more games instead of losing.

This is nothing like the football Sarri was previously playing.

Easy. Put Ghoulam, Insigne and Hamsik instead of Alonso, Willian and Barkley and you will have Sarriball. Sarriball was strongly based on those three players, possession needs quality players to perform. Except for Fabregas, there isn'tanyone in this team (neither Hazard) very good in last passes or crosses. 

I’m still struggling to wrap my head around what it is exactly that we’re meant to be doing or aspiring to be doing to open teams up?

We have the ball a lot. Rüdiger and Luiz exchange a few passes amongst themselves. Occasionally we’ll pass it back to Kepa. Then Jorginho gets it and plays a one two with Kante, then it goes back to Luiz then it goes to a fullback who gives it to Jorginho who gives it to Rüdiger who gives it back to Jorginho. He then passes to Willian who runs sideways past a couple of players and then gets tackled, he throws his hands up in the air whilst Kante retrieves the ricochet. He then plays it to Jorginho who plays a one two with Barkley (who apparently now is only capable of passing backwards, sideways or falling over). Jorginho gives it to Alonso who plays a five yard backward pass to Hazard who then attempts to dribble through the entire opposition defence, loses and we then scramble back in a mad panic whilst our opponent bypasses the entire team in two quick passes. Dave puts in a tackle and then the whole process starts again.

18 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

What i find most frustrating is that this isn't Sarriball, not from what i have seen. His previous team played lots of short passes, true, but there was a buzz, a lot of movement off the ball, fast, one touch football and direct fast running at the opposition. Not here. I don't see any difference between this and the previous manager's performances. Our football wasn't bad under Conte, it was just boring and aimless, until we ultimately fcked up and conceded. The only difference here is that we have Rudi and Luiz at the back so there are less fck ups and we just draw more games instead of losing.

This is nothing like the football Sarri was previously playing.

Fully agree. Slow build up play with very little urgency. Same as we have been saying for years. Rinse repeat. So frustrating

Trying not to get angry, I can’t be assed to analyse that performance, because I’ll just be repeating what I’ve said numerous times this season. Putting it in simple terms, finishing 5th again would not be good enough, do the board sack Sarri or keep him? I wouldn’t be surprised if they sacked him, given our history. If they keep him, do they give him the players he needs in the summer? Or do we stick with the same dead wood and blame him when it all goes wrong, there’s a pattern emerging here with the way we do our business.

2 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I’m still struggling to wrap my head around what it is exactly that we’re meant to be doing or aspiring to be doing to open teams up?

We have the ball a lot. Rüdiger and Luiz exchange a few passes amongst themselves. Occasionally we’ll pass it back to Kepa. Then Jorginho gets it and plays a one two with Kante, then it goes back to Luiz then it goes to a fullback who gives it to Jorginho who gives it to Rüdiger who gives it back to Jorginho. He then passes to Willian who runs sideways past a couple of players and then gets tackled, he throws his hands up in the air whilst Kante retrieves the ricochet. He then plays it to Jorginho who plays a one two with Barkley (who apparently now is only capable of passing backwards, sideways or falling over). Jorginho gives it to Alonso who plays a five yard backward pass to Hazard who then attempts to dribble through the entire opposition defence, loses and we then scramble back in a mad panic whilst our opponent bypasses the entire team in two quick passes. Dave puts in a tackle and then the whole process starts again.

3 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I’m still struggling to wrap my head around what it is exactly that we’re meant to be doing or aspiring to be doing to open teams up?

We have the ball a lot. Rüdiger and Luiz exchange a few passes amongst themselves. Occasionally we’ll pass it back to Kepa. Then Jorginho gets it and plays a one two with Kante, then it goes back to Luiz then it goes to a fullback who gives it to Jorginho who gives it to Rüdiger who gives it back to Jorginho. He then passes to Willian who runs sideways past a couple of players and then gets tackled, he throws his hands up in the air whilst Kante retrieves the ricochet. He then plays it to Jorginho who plays a one two with Barkley (who apparently now is only capable of passing backwards, sideways or falling over). Jorginho gives it to Alonso who plays a five yard backward pass to Hazard who then attempts to dribble through the entire opposition defence, loses and we then scramble back in a mad panic whilst our opponent bypasses the entire team in two quick passes. Dave puts in a tackle and then the whole process starts again.

LMAO.....thats f**king horrible when you put it that way.......but true nonetheless.

I think its time to start looking at the tactics.  Under Conte we created a lot more chances especially in his first season. In the second season when we signed absolute dross to try and get rid of him, it started to get bad. But atleast he was a winner.

What could morata do, the ball was never played to him and he was just surrounded by 3 defenders at all times. When someone with actual guile came on, voila, a goal. But being constantly cheated aside, we were so poor today as we have been now for about 3 months. All we do is pass, we arent an attacking team in anyway, and its so so boring to watch.

3 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I’m still struggling to wrap my head around what it is exactly that we’re meant to be doing or aspiring to be doing to open teams up?

We have the ball a lot. Rüdiger and Luiz exchange a few passes amongst themselves. Occasionally we’ll pass it back to Kepa. Then Jorginho gets it and plays a one two with Kante, then it goes back to Luiz then it goes to a fullback who gives it to Jorginho who gives it to Rüdiger who gives it back to Jorginho. He then passes to Willian who runs sideways past a couple of players and then gets tackled, he throws his hands up in the air whilst Kante retrieves the ricochet. He then plays it to Jorginho who plays a one two with Barkley (who apparently now is only capable of passing backwards, sideways or falling over). Jorginho gives it to Alonso who plays a five yard backward pass to Hazard who then attempts to dribble through the entire opposition defence, loses and we then scramble back in a mad panic whilst our opponent bypasses the entire team in two quick passes. Dave puts in a tackle and then the whole process starts again.

Brilliant summary, you can bet this is what opposing coaches are saying to their teams before they enter the field of play.

5 minutes ago, enigma said:

It takes time to adopt a new system. The only similar system is Pep's and his first season was rocky in patches too, just like ours. The city fans were also showing discontent with Pep during the season, but when it comes together it's great. The problem is, we are playing with 10 men because our striker/s are abysmal. Any coach would have issues with what we have up top. Man Utd have Martial and even Rashford who make good movement off the ball, City have Aguero/Jesus, Spurs have Kane, Liverpool have Firmino. We simply don't have good enough movement up top to cause a threat to opposition backlines. 

The difference is that you could see signs of things clicking with Guardiola and City, I'm not seeing that at all with us and Sarri. I'm far from saying he should be sacked, but I'm also not that optimistic of it all fixing itself in the next year either. You can't just blame the strikers either, they aren't telling the wingers / wing backs to pass backwards every game. They aren't telling the midfielders not to play through balls into them. We need an upgrade on both of our strikers, but the pair of them would be a lot better off if the team actually showed urgency. Every striker is at their most dangerous inside the box, they can't do anything if the rest of the team show no urgency to actually get into the box and create anything for them.

I would criticise Sarri for a lack of a plan B when things aren’t going our way but judging by our recent performances I’m not sure anyone is too sure what plan A yet. 

1 minute ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I’m still struggling to wrap my head around what it is exactly that we’re meant to be doing or aspiring to be doing to open teams up?

We have the ball a lot. Rüdiger and Luiz exchange a few passes amongst themselves. Occasionally we’ll pass it back to Kepa. Then Jorginho gets it and plays a one two with Kante, then it goes back to Luiz then it goes to a fullback who gives it to Jorginho who gives it to Rüdiger who gives it back to Jorginho. He then passes to Willian who runs sideways past a couple of players and then gets tackled, he throws his hands up in the air whilst Kante retrieves the ricochet. He then plays it to Jorginho who plays a one two with Barkley (who apparently now is only capable of passing backwards, sideways or falling over). Jorginho gives it to Alonso who plays a five yard backward pass to Hazard who then attempts to dribble through the entire opposition defence, loses and we then scramble back in a mad panic whilst our opponent bypasses the entire team in two quick passes. Dave puts in a tackle and then the whole process starts again.

Ah but you've missed the fundamental ploy around this style. This will draw the entire opposition into attacking us except for two aging, lumbering centre backs, so that when we do go, pop, pop ,pop and counter we then either a) give the ball to Hazard who beats said lumbering defensive oafs and we score or b) we stop at the edge of their box because the only option open to us is Morata and it fizzles out to nothing.

Unfortunately those horrid snakes in the grass at Sky told the whole bl00dy country that all the opposition have to do is either just sit off and pick up a point or sit on Jorginho and pick up all three.

Still at least we have a Plan B....which, of course, is carry on with Plan A regardless.

 

35 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

Boring boring Chelsea

we are gash to watch, for me it’s even for than the past few seasons.

Need a overhaul as we are stale as 2 week old bread.

'gash' haven't heard that term in a long while...since I left the military

30 minutes ago, JM7 said:

The board are going to have to bring a couple of news players in January otherwise we will struggle to make top 4. I understand it’s a busy period and the players may be tired but it’s been the same all season. There’s just no goals in this team and the squad looks creatively tired. 

I would get Higuain and through some cash at Fekir. I know it’s not football manger but they are 2 realistic signings we could make that would help us. 

Tired...because he plays the same f**king team week in week out, he could have made several changes for today's game and I'm sure the result might have been different; I doubt if it would have been worse.

Serie A transfer window opens tomorrow

My birthday is tomorrow

All I want for my birthday is a striker 

 

8 minutes ago, the special one said:

 

1 minute ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I would criticise Sarri for a lack of a plan B when things aren’t going our way but judging by our recent performances I’m not sure anyone is too sure what plan A yet. 

Apparently that's Plan A.

7 minutes ago, the special one said:

I suspect plan B is the same, only clockwise.